About Me

Renee LaGue

MLA, APLD, Certified Arborist

When I was younger I loved playing outside, camping with my family, and when I wasn't reading or writing, I spent as much time outdoors as I could. I came to landscape design after seven seasons of outdoor work including trail crew, sustainable vegetable farming, and fine gardening. I love that my work has real benefits, restoring ecological function to landscapes while simultaneously connecting people with nature. Over the years I've come to believe that beauty and novelty are just as important as ecological function, as they foster love, joy, delight, and affection for plants and natural spaces.

Topics of interest:

  • Native pollinator and habitat gardens
  • Meadow/prairie restoration and lawn conversions
  • Cold-hardy succulents and cactuses, rock gardens
  • Contorted/twisted plants
  • Fruit and nut trees and shrubs
  • Oddball/unloved plants like the Osage orange
  • The relationship between indigenous peoples and plants
  • Mediterranean-inspired gardens for the East Coast
  • Environmental literature and philosophy, nature writing
  • Beech hedges, formal landscape design with native plants
  • The dynamic tension that occurs when wild, "messy" plants are grown in/around a very structured space
  • "Old fashioned" gardens with showy blooms, including historic irises
  • Rain gardens and bioretention areas
  • Edible forest and wetland gardens
  • Foraging for wild edible plants and mushrooms
  • Plants with silver, bluish, and purple foliage
  • Dye and fiber/textile plants

Education & Certifications:

  • Certified Arborist, International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), 2021
  • M.L.A. University of Maryland, Landscape Architecture, 2017
  • M.A. Conway School, Ecological Design and Planning, 2013
  • B.A. Oberlin College, Environmental Studies and Creative Writing, 2009